🕊️ TOP Human Rights Policy: Dignity for All, Justice for Everyone
Every Mauritian is born free and equal in dignity and rights. That’s not just a slogan – it must be a lived reality. Yet, across communities, workplaces, schools, and institutions, rights are denied, voices are silenced, and justice is delayed.
TOP – Together Our People commits to enshrining and enforcing human rights as the foundation of governance, and will undertake sweeping reforms to ensure independent oversight, legal empowerment, and nationwide education on human dignity.
🏛️ 1. Reform and Empower the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC)
- Transform the NHRC into a fully independent, constitutional body—renamed as the Mauritius Human Rights Council (MHRC).
- The Chairperson to be elected by a 2/3 majority in Parliament, not appointed by the Executive.
- Make the MHRC directly accountable to the Parliament, with annual reports and binding recommendations debated in the National Assembly.
⚖️ 2. Expand Legal Powers and Mandate of the MHRC
- Grant investigative and prosecutorial powers to the MHRC for gross human rights violations.
- Enable the MHRC to summon public officials, access classified documents, and launch suo motu investigations (on its own accord).
- Establish a Special Unit within the MHRC for Vulnerable Groups, including women, children, LGBTQIA+ persons, persons with disabilities, detainees, and stateless individuals.
🧑🏫 3. Human Rights Education and Awareness
- Make human rights education mandatory in secondary schools, teacher training colleges, police academies, and the civil service.
- Launch National Human Rights Week every year to raise public awareness, with activities in Creole and other languages.
- Establish District Human Rights Officers as ombudspersons to receive complaints, support victims, and educate communities.
🕵️ 4. Independent Human Rights Monitoring System
- Create a Real-Time Human Rights Violation Tracker, publicly accessible and maintained by the MHRC.
- Require all public detention centers, police stations, and prisons to be subject to regular inspections by the MHRC and independent observers.
- Establish confidential hotlines and secure online portals to report abuses anonymously.
🧑⚖️ 5. Legal Protection for Victims and Whistleblowers
- Introduce a Victims of Rights Violation Support Act, providing legal aid, trauma counseling, safe housing, and income support.
- Ensure protection for whistleblowers under a strengthened Whistleblower Protection Law, enforced by an independent authority.
- Set up Human Rights Legal Clinics in all major towns to offer free legal advice and follow-up.
🌐 6. International Compliance and Visibility
- Ensure Mauritius meets all its reporting obligations to UN Treaty Bodies (e.g., ICCPR, CEDAW, CAT, CRC) with full transparency.
- Invite periodic reviews by international human rights observers, and commit to implementing the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) recommendations.
- Position Mauritius as a Human Rights Champion in the SADC region by forming a regional alliance on rights-based development.
👥 7. Inclusive, Community-Driven Human Rights Governance
- Create a Human Rights Citizens’ Assembly composed of NGOs, activists, youth, faith-based organisations, and academics to advise the MHRC.
- Require that all public policies be subject to Human Rights Impact Assessments before adoption.
- Introduce a Public Human Rights Budget Audit to ensure state funds are being used in alignment with rights protections.
💬 “True Power Is Measured by How We Treat the Powerless.”
TOP believes that no Mauritian should suffer in silence. Human dignity is not negotiable. Justice must not be for the connected—but for the everyday citizen.
Through an empowered, fearless, and independent Human Rights Council and a people-centred approach to governance, TOP will protect every voice, every right, and every life.
Together Our People. Together For Human Dignity.
